As big as they are, the sad fact is that the Doobie Brothers’ discography is extremely uneven. Many Doobies albums have two or three absolutely incredible songs, surrounded by 6 to 8 pieces of dead material.
“The Captain And Me” are one of the few exceptions to this rule. On this album, at least, they were right on track. Doobies patented the Twin Guitar, the Twin Drum attack never sounded better than here. If you would only have one Doobie Brothers album, you should have this one. Clear As The Driven Snow is a piece of sinuous, driving and unforgiving perfection. Long Train Running drives and leaves nothing slower. Dark-eyed Cajun Woman is deep and mysterious. China Grove is a ball out of the rocker. And South City Midnight Lady is as beautiful as the music of The Doobies. And then there’s Without You, a song that’s harder than imaginable made Doobie Brothers fans for life.
The Doobie Brothers are one of those bands like Journey and The Eagles, they tend to create music that can be described as ‘dad rock.’ There’s somewhat a subtle interchange between the instruments which makes the tracks not only more complex than they sound but extremely enjoyable to listen.
Overall, a very good album by the Doobie Brothers, their best perhaps, finally quite close to Steely Dan when you think about it. Long Train Runnin ‘is obviously superb, but China Grove is just as excellent, as is Dark-Eyed Cajun Woman, while Clear As The Driven Snow is clear as water.
Listen to the full album below: